Cohen group unravel root cause of plant twists and turns

Posted: September 29, 2015

To feed the world’s burgeoning population, producers must grow crops in more challenging terrain – where plant roots must cope with barriers. To that end, Tzer Han Tan, the Itai Cohen group and Boyce Thompson Institute plant biologists have uncovered a valuable plant root action, in that roots – when their downward path is blocked, as often occurs in rocky soil – display a “grow and switch” behavior, now reported in the latest Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. Prof Chris Henley, who passed away last June, also contributed to the research.